Kay Burley drew backlash on Newsnight after defending Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a war hero while sitting beside Jeffrey Epstein survivor Lisa Phillips. The exchange came during a live discussion about survivors speaking out, and viewers quickly demanded an apology on X.
Burley said, "And we should accept that he was a war hero. We should just throw that in." She added, "He was," after the remark. The comment landed in the middle of a segment where Phillips was urging other survivor sisters to contact her through her website.
Lisa Phillips on Newsnight
Phillips said, "What I would love is for my survivor sisters here to get in touch with me on my website." Alex Davies-Jones replied, "Likewise. Anyone can come forward – we already have had, as a result of us speaking out, survivors coming forward and claiming that they were also victims of Epstein, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor and Ghislaine Maxwell. So please, we would encourage anyone, if you’ve got any information, to come forward to us."
Victoria Derbyshire then asked, "And these are British?" That sequence left Burley’s intervention standing apart from the survivor-led focus of the discussion.
Burley and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
Burley had already said, "Only four people know what happened in that house." She then added, "One of them is dead, one of them is in prison, one of them sadly took her own life and by all accounts, the other one is lumbering around Sandringham banging doors. He needs to explain what happened."
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has always vehemently denied all allegations of wrongdoing. Burley’s defence placed that denial alongside a studio conversation centered on people describing abuse and urging others to speak.
X reaction to Kay Burley
After the segment, viewers flooded X with anger over the remark. One viewer wrote, "You owe a huge apology Kay Burley. Completely disgusting that you felt the need to say this."
The reaction showed how quickly a live line can reset the tone of a broadcast: a discussion about survivors was pulled into a dispute over Burley’s choice of words. For viewers, the immediate issue was not the biography of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, but why that defence was made in that moment.
